Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg

Ginzburg, Vitaly Lazarevich, 1916–2009, Russian physicist, Ph.D. Moscow State Univ., 1938. He was a researcher at Lebedev Physics Institute of the USSR (later Russian) Academy of Sciences after 1940. Ginzburg shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics with Alexei Abrikosov and Anthony Leggett for their pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids (see superconductivity; superfluidity). Ginzburg and Lev Landau, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for other research, developed a set of equations in 1950 that correctly predict a superconductor's tolerance to magnetic fields and its capacity for electrical current, providing scientists with a simple tool to address actual effects that can be measured in the lab. Ginzburg also worked on the Soviet hydrogen bomb project, made contributions to astrophysics, radio astronomy, and quantum theory, and later was an advocate for religious freedom and basic scientific research in Russia.